THE ABILITY TO READ , 99

(4) Of words used by three of the five series:
No. i omits at, back, home, jump., out, put, they.

No. 2 omits at, back, bed, black, by, from, had, his, like(s}.
No. 3 omits by, father, had, home, out, pig, some, us.
No. 4 omits away, bed, black, father, from, hke(s], take, us.
No. 5 omits away, jump, pig, yes.

(5) If we compare the five English books with one another we
find that:

No. i alone uses bell, don't, fall, fan, found, hat, fiorse, hush, ill,
isn't, lap, wake, over, ready, sat, sent, thin.

No. 2 alone uses blow, cannot, clothes, dig(s], field, happy, kites,
love(s), our, pail, pussy, roses, shall, shoe, sky, spade, warm, wind.

No. 3 alone uses baker(s], book, bread, bricks, butter, clean, draw,
drop(s), feet, four, hand, hear(s], knife, mark, oven, saucers, sisters, side,
smells, spoon, than, train.

No, 4 alone uses alone, along, barber (s), began, broke, crown, done,
great, leave, market, once, pail, poor, seen, wait, whose.

No. 5 alone uses been, brings, copy, dirty, drums, guns, himself,
near, line, only, rest, sands, small, summer, swim, their, until, when,
wool, year.

The practical teacher may deplore this lack of agreement
among the experts, but she will usually go ahead and make the
best of the material at her disposal, feeling that sooner or later
she will be able to see her pupils safely through the initial stages
of instruction. Given a good start with a hundred or SQ of
thoroughly familiar words and phrases, she will find no difficulty
in making them the basis of good Phonic teaching, and a little
daily Phonic drill in addition will ensure steady progress on the
part of all but the dullest of her pupils. On the other hand, there
is certainly a need of fresh thought in the composition of first
primers, and we cannot too strongly emphasize the principle
that words used with relative infrequency by little children should
not be introduced into their reading-books if it means that at
the same time the commonest words within their vocabularies
have had to be omitted.

10. MEASURING DEVELOPMENT IN READING ABILITY
We can say that progress in reading will be shown, on the one
hand, in the ability to get meaning from increasingly difficult
passages of prose and poetry, and on the other, in a steady
enrichment of experience through what is read. Progress in the
former sense must, of course, depend to a large extent on the
intelligence of the reader; one child will grasp the sense of a
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